At Democrats' Minnesota meeting, anxiety over Clinton

MINNEAPOLIS - A current of anxiety about Hillary Rodham Clinton's agonizing summer ran through the halls of the Hilton hotel here late last week as party leaders gathered for the biannual meeting of the Democratic National Committee.

She has struggled to explain her use of an unsecured private email server as secretary of state, and now lawyers and the FBI are involved. A majority of voters in a recent Quinnipiac poll said they don't consider her honest or trustworthy. And her once-vast lead in the Democratic presidential race has shrunk.

With Vice President Biden considering jumping into the race, the picture is even cloudier. Some have begun to wonder whether too much has been invested in an "inevitable" nominee who may turn out to be unelectable in November 2016.

"My concern is, 'What else is out there?' " said Raymond G. Sánchez, a former speaker of the New Mexico House and a DNC member from the state. He has known both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton since the late 1980s but is uncommitted at this point.

More bad polling news for her came Saturday. The respected Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll of Iowa Democrats found Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders closing on Clinton. She now leads by 37 percent to 30 percent for Sanders. Two months ago, she had the support of 50 percent of likely Iowa caucus-goers - and a 26-point lead over Sanders. In New Hampshire, Sanders is leading her in some surveys.

Biden, who has not announced his decision, came in third with 14 percent, with former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley at 3 percent. Pollster J. Ann Selzer told Bloomberg the survey amounted to a "wake-up call" for the Clinton campaign.

The candidate used the DNC meeting to try to stabilize her standing, giving a sharply partisan speech attacking Republicans as "the party of Trump" that was interrupted by 10 standing ovations.

"She absolutely helped herself," Sánchez said. "She made it clear that she's here, she's fighting, and she's not going anywhere. That was the Hillary I knew." (He still is unaligned.)

Perhaps more important, Clinton met privately with groups of party officials and longtime backers. Her campaign staff briefed them, letting it be known that they have locked down the support of 440 "superdelegates" - about 20 percent of the total votes needed for the nomination. It served notice on Biden and doubters.

Superdelegates are party leaders and elected officials who automatically will be sent to the convention next year in Philadelphia. They are not bound by primary results, however, and can of course change their minds.

Still, the email issue - as well as concerns about whether Clinton has the ability to form an emotional bond with voters - hung around like party-crashers.

Investigators with the FBI took possession of her private server earlier this month, though Department of Justice officials say the former first lady is not a target of the probe. Some communications involving her have been deemed to be classified, but Clinton says she did not knowingly send or receive any classified email on the home server.

Since the existence of the private email system, which was against State Department rules, came to light in March, Clinton has variously refused to take questions on the matter, said "real voters" don't care about it, and defended herself with lawyerly ferocity.

She has even joked about it, saying she loved the social app Snapchat because "messages disappear all by themselves." When a persistent reporter asked if she had wiped data from the server, Clinton said: "What, you mean with a cloth or something?"

Former Gov. Ed Rendell, a prominent Clinton backer, said: "Who on the campaign thought that was a good idea? They've been tone-deaf on this issue. They've handled it horribly." He said Clinton should have given up the server immediately.

The risk for Clinton is that the episode could remind voters of the downside of the couple's storied careers - Whitewater, Travelgate, parsing of words ("Depends on what the meaning of is is"), and the scandal of President Clinton's affair with an intern and his impeachment.

"People are tired of the drama attached to the Clintons," said a Democratic strategist not affiliated with any presidential campaign.

"Her campaign says that people don't care, that they're not hearing concerns from real people," the strategist said. "But I've heard it, including from people I went to high school with."

The strategist spoke on condition of anonymity, citing concerns about possible retaliation by the Clinton camp.

Clinton loyalists believe that fatigue with the Bush family is greater - President George W. Bush was hugely unpopular when he left office - and memories of the prosperous 1990s during the Clinton administration are rosier.

"Having Joe Biden get in would be the best thing for Hillary," said Montgomery County Democratic Chairman Marcel Groen, who is a member of the national committee. "She'd become a much better candidate. The Clintons are phenomenal with competition."

Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, agreed that stiff intra-party competition would help counteract relentless GOP attacks on the email issue and the steady drip of news stories about it.

"People were gnashing their teeth over Hillary's situation," Bloomingdale said of the DNC meeting, which he attended. "But look, nobody's better at managing controversy than the Clintons."

For all the problems, Clinton has formidable strengths. Her campaign raised $45 million in its first six weeks, and she was building a campaign for months before she announced.

"The hand-wringing is premature," said Mark Nevins, a Philadelphia-based consultant who worked on Clinton's 2008 primary campaign. "As a party, we have a corner on panicking."

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